WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en

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From Seattle to the convoys rendezvous
point off Icy Cape, Alaska, west of Point

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Barrow, is 3,000 miles.

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At Icy Cape, the ships had to wait
on the unpredictable behavior of

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the ever-shifting ice pack.

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Meanwhile on the east coast,
the ships out of Halifax

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were having their own hard-going.

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Some made their way singly
to their destinations along

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the east coast of Baffin Island.

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The others rendezvoused and headed into
Fox Basin, en route to the sites on the

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west coast of Baffin Island
and on the Melville Peninsula.

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At the rendezvous point, they were joined
by two Canadian icebreakers, which led

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them northward through 450 miles of heavy ice.

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After eight days of nervous going in the
uncharted seas, eight days of steady

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grinding with no advance at all on some days,
the convoy

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made it to the Melville Peninsula.

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From here, an airlift would have
to fly everything to other sites

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not accessible by water.

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Inland from a staging area at Edmonton,
Alberta, material for some of the central

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sites was shipped by truck
and rail to the river town of

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Waterways, where it was put on barges.

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The barges proceeded downriver for 300 miles.

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Then, because of rapids in the river,
the entire expedition had to take to

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the land for a portage.

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Even the new tugboat acquired for barge
operations had to make it along this 25

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-mile stretch of terra firma.

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In the river again,
the barge train resumed its water route

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across Great Slave Lake.

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Then it continued northward down the
Mackenzie River to the Beaufort Sea, 2

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,000 miles in all.

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To the western convoy waiting off icy Cape,
the word came at

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last that the ice was retreating.

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But still it was touch and go,
with the icebreakers clearing the way.

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Some ships dashed to nearby destinations
as the narrow corridor was opened up.

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Others pushed through to reach
more sites spotted for 1

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,200 miles further to the east.

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At many sites, the ships had to unload
in desperate haste, for a shift in the

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wind could bring the ice
back into shore overnight.

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Through late August and into September,
the unloading of the ships proceeded

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along the full length of the line.

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Every item carefully logged in
and stored according to plan.

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Now to build with the material
brought by the ships in a

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race against the approaching winter.

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Work was rushed on the permanent
living and operating quarters.

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These were prefabricated structures made
up of standard units called modules.

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In the boulder-strewn terrain of some
eastern sites where there were no gravel

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deposits, the big rock crushers brought
in by the sea lift were put to work to

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supply the great quantities
of gravel and sand needed.

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It was in this area where the
terrain was worst that the

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longest roads had to be built.

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Here the stations were to be placed
on top of cliffs some as high as

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2,500 feet above the sea.

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Without the roads, module units could
not be hauled to their foundations.

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October, ten months had gone by.

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All too soon, the long winter closed in.
With its fierce storms, its brief

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twilights and long darknesses.

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Finishing the module interiors crawled for
all the crafts of the building trades.

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Americans and Canadians were recruited
from every corner of the two

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countries for these skilled tasks.

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The module concept solved the problem of
providing shelter on the due line that

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would be adequate, comfortable,
and safe, and could

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take it from the savage elements.

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At the same time, the task began the
all-important task of installing

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the radar and radio equipment.

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The wiring of these systems was
extremely complex, but experience and

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careful training paid off.

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They were ready now to install the radar
control consoles being flown up by the

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Air Force from a western electric
plant in North Carolina.

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But some sites had no landing
strips for the big cargo planes.

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To these, a helicopter had to
shuttle in the one and a half

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ton crates containing the consoles.

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Another job for the C-124s that winter was
getting the big antennas of the search

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radars to the line from an
Air Force base in Delaware.

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The delicate matched parts of each antenna
were packed in 17 crates, especially

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designed in assorted shapes and sizes,
to fit into two C-124s.

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With the installation of the control consoles,
the inside

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electronic work was well underway.

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The stations were still locked in the grip
of the second due line winter, but the

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crews could not wait longer to
start on the steel tower work.

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They blasted holes for the
foundations out of the frozen earth.

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They mixed concrete in heated tents.

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As they poured the concrete in the bitter cold,
they kept it from freezing by

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pumping in heat under topolids.

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With the foundations in,
the tower work went steadily forward.

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June of the second year,
18 months gone, 14 to go.

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Summer in the Arctic brings a bloom
of wildflowers and temperature

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sometimes as high as 60 degrees.

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More often the temperature
stayed near freezing, but the

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wind subsided much of the time.

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Then it was good weather for
erecting the search radar antennas.

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These precision mechanisms would be
damaged if a sudden windstorm came up, so

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once started the job had to be
finished as fast as possible.

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The crews worked around the clock
until the entire assembly was in place

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and its protective covering erected.

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In that second summer, a new sea lift came
and went, another transportation epic,

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but already an old story on the due line.

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Ranking officers of the Air Force on their
inspection tour late that summer had

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good reason to be satisfied
with the progress they found.

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Both Air Force and Bell System
officials kept in frequent first

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-hand touch with work on the line.

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As summer gave way to fall, the crews
pushed intensively to finish installing the

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antennas in the aircraft alarm towers
and the various permanent radio systems.

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When the radio antennas were up,
the stations of the line would be able to

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communicate with each other more dependably,
and the line could communicate with

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the air defense control
centers far to the south.

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With permanence completed at most of the sites,
the airlift was giving full year

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-round service to virtually the entire line.

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Some of those new permanent airstrips
in the rugged eastern terrain were

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pretty, well, rugged.

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December and the second due line Christmas.
By now, many of the sites were fully

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built. Project 572 was proceeding on schedule.

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But indoors, many months of work still
remained to finish installing and testing

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the radars and the communication systems,
and to

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coordinate them from station to station.

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Here in the modules which
housed this equipment was the

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heart of each due line station.

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On the performance of the electronic equipment,
the success of the whole vast

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undertaking would stand or fall.

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The work went on, and once more,
the Arctic winter closed in.

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Often the expression snowed in

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had a completely literal meaning.

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But nature and the Arctic no longer seemed
so savage, for life on the due line

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had become pretty civilized.

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Your quarters were a pleasant room which
had quite a few of the comforts of home.

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Your shift was one of three that
kept the radar and communication

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systems continually manned.

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You worked through the morning and broke
for a good lunch. Then, back to work.

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On off time,
there were various sports to help you keep fit.

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Spring baseball practice started early.
While you were working up an appetite,

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the chef would be doing something about it.

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After dinner, it was each man to his
own pleasure. It might be music.

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Perhaps you preferred a rousing game
of table tennis, no quarter given.

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You could curl up with a good book.

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Or there was that other fine
intellectual pastime called poker,

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no quarter given here either.

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But always and mainly there was the work,
the continuous testing, the precise

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calibrating of the electronic equipment
so radically new in many respects.

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Through that third winter and spring,
more than a million tests were made to

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check out the detection and tracking
capabilities of the radars.

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July 31st of the 32nd month since the job
began. On that day, the due line system

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was declared officially operational,
completed on schedule.

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In about half the time,
such an undertaking normally would require

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even in a civilized area.

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Henceforth, the Canadian and American
people would have a distant early warning

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line guarding them against
attack from the north.

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But the building of the due line has
done more than provide a vital warning

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system.
It has conquered the far northern wilderness.

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This remote part of the world may now
be put to whatever purposes men wish.

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The due line stations may in time be
further equipped, taking advantage of new

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technological advances and
meeting new military threats.

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But perhaps the true historical role of
the due line will prove to be the opening

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up for peaceful and productive purposes
of a vast new frontier above the Arctic

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Circle, the untapped resources of
which we have as yet barely glimpsed.

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That would be the finest reward of all
for the men who built the due line.